Roku Developer Program

[Pookla]

Oh and ANOTHER problem with going the cd roku_media_server/server then python mymedia.py is that the server doesn't work. If I select "My Videos" I get the error "Sever Problem Communications with the server has been lost".
Terminal doesn't output anything.

If I do it my original way it works. I've checked this 3 times so I know that I have to run the sever at the main directory level for mymedia server to work. =\

sooo.... again, something is wrong with the way the directory structures are being recognized.

boo.

[renojim]

Some of the images are stored within the channel that's on the Roku and some are retrieved from the server. Eventually I'd like to move them all to the server, but that's why you see the "settings" poster but not some of the others (although that particular poster will always be part of the channel).

Let's try this experiment. With the server running, browse to http://localhost:8001/feed. If the directories are setup properly in config.ini you should see links for "My Music", "My Videos", "My Photos", and "My Streams". If the links for "My Videos" and/or "My Photos" don't appear then the corresponding directory isn't set properly in config.ini. I believe "My Music" and "My Streams" will always appear. If you click on "My Music", does your music appear?

To further the experiment, save the http://localhost:8001/feed page as an XML file. If you open it in a text editor you should see something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>MyMusic Feed</title>
    
    <item>
      <title>My Music</title>
      <description>Folder</description>
      <image>http://192.168.1.3:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fmusic_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
      <link>http://192.168.1.3:8001/feed?key=music&amp;dir=.</link>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>My Videos</title>
      <description>Folder</description>
      <image>http://192.168.1.3:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fvideos_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
      <link>http://192.168.1.3:8001/feed?key=video&amp;dir=.</link>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>My Photos</title>
      <description>Folder</description>
      <image>http://192.168.1.3:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fphotos_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
      <link>http://192.168.1.3:8001/feed?key=photo&amp;dir=.</link>
    </item>
    
    <item>
      <title>My Streams</title>
      <description>Folder</description>
      <image>http://192.168.1.3:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fstreams_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
      <link>http://192.168.1.3:8001/remotes</link>
    </item>
    
  </channel>
</rss>

You'll notice the links for the My Music, My Videos, etc. posters (<image>) in the XML. For example, for my case the link to the My Music poster is:

http://192.168.1.3:8001/media?res=223%2C200&name=images%2Fmusic_square.jpg&key=client

First, take a look at the link and see if the IP address is what you expect. Then, copy and paste the link into your browser and see if the image appears.

Let us know how it goes.
-JT

[Pookla]

Hi Again,
Experiment conducted. Images failed. I don't know why config.ini wouldn't be correct. I re-downloaded the package just yesterday.
I've included the XML below. I can play videos and music and look at pictures, but when I put the URL of the images into either chrome or firefox, it comes back "None". What gives?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>MyMusic Feed</title>

<item>
<title>My Music</title>
<description>Folder</description>
<image>http://10.0.1.10:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fmusic_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
<link>http://10.0.1.10:8001/feed?key=music&amp;dir=.</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>My Videos</title>
<description>Folder</description>
<image>http://10.0.1.10:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fvideos_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
<link>http://10.0.1.10:8001/feed?key=video&amp;dir=.</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>My Photos</title>
<description>Folder</description>
<image>http://10.0.1.10:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fphotos_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
<link>http://10.0.1.10:8001/feed?key=photo&amp;dir=.</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>My Streams</title>
<description>Folder</description>
<image>http://10.0.1.10:8001/media?res=223%2C200&amp;name=images%2Fstreams_square.jpg&amp;key=client</image>
<link>http://10.0.1.10:8001/remotes</link>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

[renojim]

I think I figured out the problem. I was able to recreate what you're seeing - config.ini should be in the server directory and you should be starting mymedia.py from within that directory. You probably have a config.ini somewhere it doesn't belong and it's getting picked up when you start mymedia.py from its location. Move it to the server directory and start mymedia.py from there.

-JT

[Pookla]

Extra config.ini found and deleted.
Had to reconfigure roku so I did.
Ran mymedia.py using python26 with updated PIL from the appropriate server folder within roku_media_server folder.

Icons for the my video, my music, my streams, my photos STILL don't show up. Remember this folder was freshly downloaded 3 days ago.

Still haven't found the bug. What should I edit to get the pictures to show up?

-K

[renojim]

You are running "python mymedia.py" from within the server directory and that's where config.ini is located, right? The images are located in the 'client/images' directory (unless you changed the theme in config.ini from "default", but I doubt that). If the zip (or tarball) was unzipped properly, the structure should look like:

netguy204-roku_media_server-2e97365
   client
      images
      source
      themes
         high_contrast
   server
      django
      eye3d
      simplejson
      static
      web

I've left out a lot of subdirectories that we're not interested in. You can rename the 'netguy204-roku_media_server-2e97365' to anything you like as long as the rest of the structure is unchanged.

One more thing - make sure you reboot your Roku. I know that it caches images, but I don't know whether it "remembers" that an image was unavailable and therefore won't try to retrieve it again. Also, repeat the experiment where you try to load the image from the feed XML in you browser.

-JT

[mkolby]

Is there any way to force folders to use specific thumbnails (folder.jpg) inside their directory instead of a random .jpg?

[renojim]

It's not really random. It uses the first one it finds, so if you name your desired JPEG something like 0.jpg it should be the first one it finds.

-JT

[swiharta]

While I initially had no luck with video using the version labelled "netguy204-roku_media_server-alpha3-59-g25aaa89", mp3s and album art both worked flawlessly. Any video I threw at the Roku would attempt to load, but the buffering progress bar would just stall at zero for about a second before it aborted back to the previous menu.

I immediately upgraded to the version labelled "netguy204-roku_media_server-ExtremeAvocado-40-g2e97365", the most current I think, and now videos including WMV's play perfectly, but I'm having trouble with the MP3 side of things. I fired up the older version of the app just to make sure it still works with MP3s and it does.

Here are the xml responses from from the older (populated) and newer (empty) versions of the app, when requesting the same URL, which points to the contents of a folder containing the MP3 files for an album. Obviously the XML just isn't getting generated correctly with the newer version for some reason.

Navigating anywhere other than dead-end folders (with no subfolders), I get essentially identical, normal xml responses from both old and new versions of the app.

Anyone got a clue what's wrong here?

P.S.: Just realized this existed months after buying my Roku, when it dawned on me, why not just make my own Roku channel to stream my own stuff? Thanks to everyone who did all the hard work already in contributing to this software, you rock! As a side note, I'm trying to learn Python and Django lately, so that makes it even cooler to me.

[renojim]

The ExtremeAvocado-40 version is the latest. It works for me. I'm not sure what to make of your results. Check the my_media_log.txt file in the server directory and see if there's any message that might be helpful.

Do your MP3s have ID3 tags?

-JT